Friday, December 30, 2011

Hal took the win at Azencross. Ryan won in Bredene. And Ian had the best showing today at the Fidea Classic in Leuven.

In the overall race, we have more changes at the top of the standings. Chris O continues to lead. But Jonah has moved back into second place. He sits just 30 points out of the top spot. I am in third place, 60 points behind Jonah. Andy has dropped down to fourth, but is still lurking close by. He is 25 points from the final podium spot. The top four teams are separated by just 115 points.

Also, for the first time since Nov. 11, we have some changes at the bottom end of the standings. Matt has had a lock on the lanterne rouge for almost two months. But Andrea wrested it from his grip today with a 25 point performance in Leuven. She is the only person other than Matt and Tomek to occupy last place.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

There was a ride. I'm not sure where it went. But it was no doubt a good one.

At the klubhaus, we received a late X-mas gift in the form of a free round courtesy of the management. We elected to go even darker than the usual Darkness with some goodness courtesy of Mr. Arthur Guinness.

We sketched out plans for some new course features that will put DarkCross 2012 so far over the top it is unlikely we will ever get it back.

We also confirmed a few key details for the FGBC/RRR 2012 Kickoff Party that will take place next week. The most important detail is that it WILL happen, despite the fact that some important matters pertaining to the planning of this special event disappeared into the dark matter of the President's brain over the holidays and went unconfirmed. The Secretary kindly agreed to pick up the loose ends. Look for more details coming to your inbox very soon. Cousin Thomas asked for help in determining whom he should ask to be his date for the evening. We weren't much help.

But before we get around to celebrating the arrival of 2012, we still have to close out 2011 in proper style. We will do that with a cx race on New Years Eve. Probably some time in the early afternoon. Check back for more details.

We also returned to the Impaler's idea of HorseCross. We gave him the go-ahead to look for a venue.

And then Vic gave us a summary of the 9000 songs that are on his ipod. There is less opera than you might think.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Good news, boys and girls. We have reached the part of the year where there are cyclocross races almost every day. How awesome is that?

There were two races this week--in Surhuitsterveen on Tuesday and Diegem on Friday. They will take a break over the weekend before the awesomeness starts up again on Boxing Day with the next round of the World Cup on the race car circuit in Zolder.

Ian took the win in Surhuitsterveen. He had 285 points with contributions from red hot Marianne Vos, Radomir Simunik, and Mariusz Gil. Terry was second with 240 points. And Jay had 220 points to finish third.

In Diegem, Terry was crowned king of the night. On the strength of another impressive win by Vos, along with contributions from Bart Aernouts, Steve Chainel, Simunik, and Nancy Bober, he managed to grab himself 365 points. Jay found himself on the podium for the second consecutive race, with 320 points. And Hal received an early birthday present in the form of the final spot on the podium. He had 275 points on the day. Swell guy that he is, Terry was kind enough to let Halberto spray the crowd with champagne.

In the overall race, we continue to see changes to the top of the standings. Chris O continues to lead, and even stretched the gap a little bit. Jonah has moved into second overall. He is 100 points behind Chris. King Andy has dropped to third place. He sits another 105 points back of the J-Train.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

KK's Kristmas Kermesse was more like an enduro alleycat. He sent us to six different holiday themed sites that took us to Lindenwoods, Charleswood, South Osborne, and downtown.

The order by which we visited the various sites was determined randomly. This ensured that we all traveled separate routes, which gave us plenty of opportunity to wonder whether we had actually be suckered into another installment of Wrath Cross. It also meant that some had longer routes to travel than others. It seems JP had the longest trip, clocking in at around 45 kms. Jonny spent the most time on the road, but mostly because he spent 10 minutes in the Exchange looking for Carlton St. before he remembered it is not there. Only Luke elected not to visit all the checkpoints. He picked up some pizza instead and hung out by KK's fire, enjoying Egg Nog and sambuca.

That was probably the smart thing to do. Then again, the rest of us got to ride around for two hours. That was pretty awesome.

The Hipster and I arrived at KK's place, the final checkpoint, at the same time. And JP showed up just as we left for the finish line at the klubhaus. He caught us, of course. So we sat down together and ordered three pints of Darkness, setting up a thrilling three-way sprint to the bottom of the glass. JP took it pretty easily. The Hipster was second and I limped home for third place. Jonny G came in about 10 minutes later.

The full results (including those who showed up but did not ride, just because we want to) are as follows.

JPMarkChrisJonny GLukeKKDarrylKellyGraham

After the first two races, the overall standings for the 2011-12 Nordic Cross Series look like this:

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Watch this video from the women's race at Namur on Sunday. Not only does it do a much better job of capturing the sweet conditions of the course, it also gives a better sense of what looks like a very awesome venue. And of course, it provides a nice window into a side of cx racing that receives all too little attention.

Also, the link to the last lap of the mens race has been fixed below. Thanks Graham. If you're too lazy to scroll down, you can also click right here.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Holy Crap! Was that awesome or what? Bart Wellens worked some voodoo magic to take out Nys's derailleur and grab a win for himself in Essen. And then, as if the Essen mud-fest wasn't already awesome enough, they kicked it up a notch at Namur on Sunday. If you missed the race, be sure to watch the last lap here.

In the CX Pool, Chris O took the win in Essen with 445 points courtesy of Wellens, Meeusen, Helen Wyman, and Sophie De Boer. Hal had 400 points for second place. And Andrea's 320 point day got her onto the final podium step.The J-Train took a big win in Namur. He had 520 points with contributions from Nys, Compton and her heir apparent, Katie Antonneau. Rachel had 475 points to finish second. And Laura was third, with 465 points.

For the second week in a row, we have a new leader atop the overall standings. Chris O now sits at the front of the race. He has 8760 points. That's a little more than double the amount of points Matt has, down at the other end of the overall standings. King Andy remains in second overall. He is just 45 points back of Chris. I am back in third place, another 130 points back of Andy. Jonah is nipping at my heals. He's just 20 points from the final podium spot. It's all very close. At least among the top four. Good times.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Good news boys and girls. The President has something special planned for us. Think of it as the Dark Side's version of the holiday bonus. More information will show up in your inbox soon. But for now, make sure you are able to attend a very special event on Jan. 3 at 8pm. Attendance will be mandatory.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Whittier, it was the opposite of shittier. Nearly snow free singletrack in mid-December? Weird. But awesome nonetheless.

There were a few icy patches though. And one of them, combined with an errant tree sent the Impaler tumbling down the side of the high line trail and into the burrs.

The President was waiting for us at the klubhaus. Don't believe us? We have proof:

He was there, in part, because we had some big news to digest. But at this point the details must remain top-secret. Almost as secret as the story of the Darkness, which was quite finicky last night. The tunes? I don't recall a single one. That's how big the big news was. We were preoccupied. But not so preoccupied that we missed witnessing two separate incidents in which the Hipster was groped. That beard, it has special powers.

The Vlaamse Druivenveldrit, that is. Though you may know it by its other title, The Mother of All Cross Races. I prefer to think of it as TMOACR and consider it a distant, Flemish cousin to our very own MUCR.

In case you didn't catch it live on Sunday, you can watch the whole thing here, thanks to the crossjunkie:

Saturday, December 10, 2011

That sounds big. Almost as big as the Big Idea. The last time we found ourselves in live tweet territory, Jonny G, the Cricket, KK, Dr. John and I were chasing an ultra endurance cycling legend through the mountains and across the prairies. To be honest, we never figured out how live tweeting differed from the regular sort of tweeting. But it did help to make our effort sound newsworthy. Besides, the nomenclature came from a very big man--our resident media expert, ACE. He had already utilized his bigness to destroy a couch in the RV by that point, so we thought it best not to raise any questions about his choice of words.

Halberto, Gianni, and Co. think they have something big on their hands too. Maybe not Big Idea big. But big nonetheless. So big, in fact, that they are live tweeting their information meeting about it next Wednesday, December 14 from 7 to 9 p.m. at Olympia. Yes, you read that correctly. They are live tweeting a meeting.

The meeting is about an event they are calling Actif Epica. It sounds exotic. Or perhaps it's just that spelling is hard. Or maybe Epica is to Epic as Sweeterest is to Sweetest? In which case it will be not just epic, but very, very epic. It also sounds very, very cold. So cold that they are bringing in an expert in cold weather safety and survival to provide some tips about how to avoid winding up frozen in a ditch.

Thursday, December 08, 2011

Some are anticipating Christmas. And some among those are anticipating not-so-good times shopping for gifts. But that kind of anxious anticipation is unwarranted. Because the Dark Side is on your side. The sweetest gift in the world is still available: a pair of FGBC wool socks. They are $10 a pair. Let us know how many you want.

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Monday, December 05, 2011

There were four races this weekend. Two in Warwick, RI. A World Cup in Spain, but only for the men. The women raced in Frankfurt instead. There were also two races in LA, but they didn't meet the criteria for inclusion in the pool.

Saturday, December 03, 2011

Thursday, December 01, 2011

It is now two days later and I'm just starting to feel sleepy. Just kidding. I slept like a baby. Unlike some others, apparently. Sorry Mark. You obviously need to add more caffeine to your daily routine.

The race started with a mandatory but randomly chosen scattering, just to make sure everyone split up. JP and the Hipster were the first to arrive back at the klubhuas. And they finished their first pint at the same time too. This meant they had they both had the maximum number of entries in the random draw that was to determine the overall winner. From this we learned that Lady Luck was not smiling on JP that night. He defied the odds in the wrong sort of way and plummeted all the way down to 8th place. Mark hung around for second. And the winner, with just 3 entries in the sweaty cycling cap was me. Thank you Lady Luck. KK managed to beat the odds as well. He was second last before the draw but ended up finishing 4th. Luke, Penner, and Darryl did not drink any caffeine. But they showed up and were subjected to Vic's even-more-hyper-than-usual banter. So we included them in the results as well, in the order that they showed up at the klubhaus. No fat tire penalties had to be assessed. But Graham received a bonus for helping me fix my flat tire. Unfortunately, it was negated by the penalty applied for failing to show up at the start on time. So it was a wash.

As for the coffee, the consensus was that Parlour was clearly the best, followed by Bar Italia. Joe Black's was easily the worst.